In the third quarter of the year wealth management clients of major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley kept on accumulating spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

A memecoin trading frenzy and a major price move for Solana have led to record fees and revenue activity for decentralized finance applications (DApps) on the Solana blockchain.

Short interest against Bitcoin miners has surged by 50% over the last 30 days to reach $4.6 billion to a new high for the year, in a move that puts these traders at risk of a short squeeze.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Wall Street's Wealth Management Clients Accumulate Spot Bitcoin ETFs
• Solana DApps See Record Revenue Surge Amid Trading Boom
• Short Interest in Bitcoin Miners Hits Record High, Setting Stage for Potential Short Squeeze
• 26% of Exchanges Lack KYC Requirements

Wall Street's Wealth Management Clients Accumulate Spot Bitcoin ETFs

In the third quarter of the year wealth management clients of major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley kept on accumulating spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Goldman Sachs reported holdings of spot bitcoin ETF shares valued at $710 million as of the end of September, nearly doubling its allocation from $418 million in the prior quarter. The bulk of Goldman’s shares were invested in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), where it held close to 13 million shares.

Other major financial players, including Morgan Stanley, Cantor Fitzgerald, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, UBS, and HSBC, largely maintained their existing positions without significant additions or reductions.

Australian investment bank Macquarie Group revealed during the quarter it acquired 132,355 shares of IBIT, valued at $4.8 million. Wells Fargo, with a minor stake, concentrated its holdings in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC).

These figures were reported in the quarterly reports institutional investors with over $100 million in assets under management have to file to disclose their holdings of certain securities, the 13F filings.

BlackRock, the largest asset manager globally, reported a stake of 2.54 million shares in its own iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at $91.6 million as of the end of September.

Solana DApps See Record Revenue Surge Amid Trading Boom

A memecoin trading frenzy and a major price move for Solana have led to record fees and revenue activity for decentralized finance applications (DApps) on the Solana blockchain.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that five of the top ten protocols by fees on November 17 were Solana-based amid a surge that coincided with a rally in the price of Solana's native token, SOL, which reached $242 - its highest level since November 2021.

Leading the charge was Raydium, a Solana-based automated market maker, which raked in a record-breaking $11.3 million in fees on November 17. Jito, a liquid staking protocol, generated its third-highest day of fees at $9.87 million that day.

Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, meanwhile, experienced its seventh-highest day of earnings with $1.65 million in fees. Similarly, Photon, a Telegram trading bot specializing in Solana memecoins, secured $2.36 million in fees, marking its fifth-highest day on record.

Short Interest in Bitcoin Miners Hits Record High, Setting Stage for Potential Short Squeeze

Short interest against Bitcoin miners has surged by 50% over the last 30 days to reach $4.6 billion, a new high for the year, in a move that puts these traders at risk of a short squeeze.

As short interest rose, so did the price of Bitcoin, which after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the US presidential elections, reached a new all-time high above $93,000 before enduring a slight correction.

Matthew Unterman, managing director at S3 Partners, noted that the recent rally has put short sellers of mining stocks at risk of a potential short squeeze. Short sellers borrow shares of a company, sell them in the market, and then repurchase them at a lower price to return the borrowed shares, profiting from the price decline.

However, if the stock price rises sharply, short sellers may be forced to buy back the shares at a higher price, leading to substantial losses. A short squeeze can occur when a large number of short sellers are simultaneously forced to buy back shares, causing the stock price to rise even further.

In recent months, Bitcoin mining stocks have seen significant surges, as since BTC’s low on September 6 Riot Platforms rose 86%, CleanSpark 73%, and Marathon Digital around 55%.

26% of Exchanges Lack KYC Requirements

CCData’s latest Exchange Benchmark report assessed 84 exchanges, and found only 23% require Source of Funds verification, and 29% require Proof of Address. While over 50% of Benchmark exchanges implement at least one stringent know-your-customer (KYC) check, 26% lack any KYC requirements.

A lack of KYC requirements is a significant vulnerability and a potential compliance risk under anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. 46% of exchanges have formally engaged with an external Transaction Monitoring provider, enhancing AML regulatory compliance, while 67% impose strict ID verification requirements on users.

 Dig deeper via CCData’s latest Exchange Benchmark report.

Tokenisation Summit 2024: Explore the Future of Asset and Money Tokenisation

The Tokenisation Summit 2024 will be taking place on 21 November in central London (with virtual ticket options available for anyone unable to travel to London).

Obtain a 20% discount using the code below!

Event Summary

The Tokenisation Summit will analyse the economics and use cases of tokenisation from the perspective of the traditional markets. The key questions are which problems can tokenisation help to solve, how can it be integrated and how do you scale it? 

The agenda is divided into: (1) assets (funds and securities) tokenisation and (2) money (CBDC, stablecoins, tokenised deposits and collateral) tokenisation. 

The programme builds on the cross-industry work undertaken by various trade associations in the City to develop tokenisation from a concept into a usable technique with widespread applications in financial markets. We will be examining the developments and innovations in different regions – the UK, Europe, US, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Middle East, and how these regions can collaborate to scale tokenisation and to create a global regulatory framework. 

We will be also looking at the enablers for tokenisation – the developments in infrastructure and custody solutions.

You can view the current agenda and speakers on the website below.

Website/Registration/Enquiries

• Website: https://www.cityandfinancialglobal.com/the-tokenisation-summit-2024/ccdata-discount
• Email: bookings@cityandfinancial.com

Obtain a 20% discount by using/quoting the following discount code: CRYPTO8CCD

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